


To What End

by DestinyFreeReally



Category: Chicago PD (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-22
Updated: 2019-02-22
Packaged: 2019-11-03 16:36:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 920
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17881343
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DestinyFreeReally/pseuds/DestinyFreeReally
Summary: After 3x16, Nadia's death still sending Erin reeling, Jay's more than worried after he hears what happened when the suspect put his gun to Erin's head. (References 3x16)





	To What End

    Erin slid the button on her phone to ‘ignore.’ Jay would have to forgive her, she had company, after all. Turning back to her beer and her date, Erin sighed a breath when her phone rang again, and again she slid it to ‘ignore.’   
  
    “Do you need to get that?” The kid from the bar asked, uncertain. He hadn’t really expected the pretty lady teetering on her mother’s barstool to actually ask him to come in, and he wasn’t sure she was even all that interested in him.    
  
   “Nah, just work. He’ll have to wait til-” A knock at her front door made Erin sit up. What did she have to do to be left alone? Did she have to post a sign? “Til I answer the door, apparently.”   
  
   Putting her beer down on the glass coffee table, Erin geared herself up for the  _ everything’s fine, I’m just tired, _ speech she knew she was going to have to give whoever was at the door. Even if it was Jay.   
  
    “Lemme guess, Chicago PD?” Erin answered the door with a small smile, keeping her body pressed in the opening. It was nobody from work’s business how she spent her non-business hours.    
  
    “Erin, I’ve called you like-” Jay looked her over, how she angled herself against the door, how her eyes were half-lidded and unfocused.    
  
   “A hundred times? You know, for a guy who works in intelligence, you’d think you’d get the hint,” brushing hair from her face, Erin knew what he was doing, what he was looking for on her face. Signs of grief, of intoxication, whatever.    
  
   “I wanted to make sure you were okay, I heard today got a little intense. Can I… come in?” Rubbing the back of his neck, Jay wasn’t sure what his partner was hiding in her apartment but he knew she thought he wouldn’t like it.    
  
   “Three would be a crowd in here, Jay,” Erin braved a smile, with a head toss towards the kid from the bar. “Kind of have company…”    
  
    Jay gave a slow nod, crossing his arms. “Anybody I know?”    
  
    “My name’s Jason, we met in Bunny’s bar… Did you say you’re a cop? Looking I should probably, you know…” The kid pushed past Erin, making his way past Jay in the hallway, “Uh, see you around, Erin?”    
  
   “Probably not though, okay, pal?” Jay flashed his badge and Jason hustled faster down the hall out of the apartment building. “You’re back to frequenting Bunny’s bar?” Turning back to Erin, Jay knew then that his fears were founded on solid ground. Erin wasn’t handling Nadia’s death well, and she was handling it especially bad if she was hanging out with Bunny, again. “That’s why you’ve been late showing up, and moody when you do?” Leaning against the door, Jay inched closer, smelling Erin’s beer breath. “Lemme come in, just for a minute,” he hoped she didn’t hear the beg in his voice. Unless that was going to work.    
  
    “Now that you’ve chased my date away…” Erin groaned, rolling her eyes. “Let me clean up in here a little, just hold on a sec,” she closed the door on Jay without giving him a second to respond. Brushing crushed up pills into the garbage can, and spraying Febreeze over every surface of her home, Erin shook her head at herself. At the world. “Come on in, partner, sorry about the mess,” she grumbled, still fanning Febreeze.   
  
    “What kind of date wouldn’t know you’re a cop?” Halstead looked skeptical, and smelled a big whiff of Sunset Tropicale. And something else. “Were you smoking in here?”    
  
    Erin ignored the way his eyes were looking to her with concern.    
  
    “The kind of date who I didn’t tell, it’s not exactly a hit at Bunny’s bar,” Erin picked up her beer where she left it, hoping it hadn’t gone flat but knowing it wouldn’t bother her if it had. “Weren’t you here to talk about work? I told you, I’m fine; somebody held a gun to my head today and it was like. Maybe only top three of today’s worst moments,” she thought she went for the joke but her partner didn’t laugh.    
  
    Jay stood still for a couple of minutes, keeping his eyes off Erin, and noticed dust on the coffee table where there had probably been drugs.    
  
   “Antonio said you  _ begged _ the guy to shoot you? You  _ begged _ somebody to shoot you in the head today?” He looked up, trying to find Erin in the bloodshot eyes that were looking back at him.    
  
    Rolling her eyes, Erin huffed a sigh, “The kid wasn’t gonna  _ do _ it, his hands were shaking and he’d probably never even fired before. It was a means to an end.”   
  
   “What end?” Jay asked, and felt the air leave the room.    
  
    “I think you should go I’m  _ fine _ and you can tell everybody else in our precinct that I want to be left alone, please.” Erin barely recognized the small voice that came out of her own mouth.   
  
    “Nobody wants to watch you spiral down a bad way, Erin. I need my partner, and I need her to be alright, for me to be alright.” Stepping closer, Jay hated the way Erin’s eyes couldn’t focus on him.    
  
   “Well, that’s just great because I’m not inviting anyone to the show. Go home, I’ll be fine, the further away from me you can get the better.” Erin walked Jay to the door with a tight, false smile, “Just ask Nadia," she closed the door.


End file.
